Songs From The Edge: 1990

94.5 The Edge was the greatest radio station I have ever heard. It debuted in Dallas in the summer of 1989, and for five years it exposed me to more new alternative music than I could have ever imagined. In this continuing series, we’ll take a look back at the songs that made the Edge required listening for anyone with a musical pulse in North Texas in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Aussie new wave band Real Life had a huge MTV hit with 1983’s “Send Me An Angel,” but then they seemed to disappear from American airwaves. A re-recorded version of “Send Me An Angel” brought the band back to the charts in 1989, and they followed it up with the epic “God Tonight.” Something tells me Real Life spent a decent amount of time listening to Nine Inch Nail’s Pretty Hate Machine before recording this song…

The Railway Children had some success in their native UK after the release of their debut album in 1986, and that led to an opening slot on some European dates during R.E.M.’s Document tour. In 1990, the band signed with Virgin Records and released Native Place. “Every Beat Of The Heart” was released as a single in the U.S., and it went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. To this day, I still smile whenever I hear this perfectly constructed pop song.

Songs like “Heavy Weather Traffic” are why I loved The Edge. George Gimarc and his crew played “Heavy Weather Traffic” to death, but apparently other radio stations didn’t give it the time of day. Katydids recorded one more album and then broke up, proving that it’s next to impossible to be successful when you name your band after an insect. (Notice that I said NEXT to impossible…)

The Inspiral Carpets were part of the Manchester scene of the late ’80s, but they never achieved quite the same level of success as the Happy Mondays or the Stone Roses. They made some great records though, and “This Is How It Feels” is one of my favorite songs of the era. It was a huge hit in the UK, and a huge smash on The Edge as well.

I remember seeing the video for “Dreamtime” exactly one time on MTV, but thanks to The Edge I had known about the Heart Throbs for months. “Dreamtime” went as high as #2 on the Modern Rock chart in the U.S., and was the only real hit for the band. The Heart Throbs broke up after their second album, Jubilee Twist, failed to chart.

Sad but true: Rose and Rachel from The Heart Throbs are the sisters of Echo & The Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas. Pete was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1989, so he never had the chance to see his sisters hit the Top 10.

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Bonus Tracks!

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